


cheating in the circle

by youcouldmakealife



Series: giving in to the influence [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 15:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andy wishes he’d fallen for someone a little more like Dan Riley, all nice and normal, and <i>gay</i>. Also not currently in a headlock on the dressing room floor. That’s a big one.</p><p>“Bowie,” Derek chokes out, and Andy sighs and goes to save him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cheating in the circle

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully this will work as a salve between parts of _throw up your fists, throw out your wits_.
> 
> Oh yeah, I still have a [tumblr](http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/). And such. 
> 
> Um, warning for Andy's mom being right when she said he doesn't have an ounce of sense in him. 
> 
> AND WARNING FOR DAN RILEY.

The offseason is long, and it’s almost strange, being back home, with his mom making him meals and doing his laundry and no one to yell at him if he doesn’t work hard enough. He tells his dad to, but his dad is pretty bad at it, probably because love makes you a bad trainer. 

He does his best to keep himself motivated, and it’s easier than he thought it would be, because the idea of not making the team is basically unthinkable, and not being on Derek’s wing wouldn’t feel right. 

He does end up going to Brampton for a week, he guesses Derek meant it, because he whined until Andy came, and they do go to a Jays game, do all the cool things that Derek bragged about, except they don’t take advantage of the nightlife, and Andy wonders if Derek’s afraid Andy’s going to jump him again if they get drunk together. He wouldn’t, but there’s no real way to say that without breaking the mutual ignoring thing they both have, or maybe Derek genuinely doesn’t remember, so Andy doesn’t say anything.

It’s while he’s in Brampton that the news hits that Dan Riley’s joining their team, and Andy bites his lip when Derek’s scrolling through twitter that day. Andy was sixteen and quiet and so, so closeted when the Riley and Lapointe shit hit the fan, and so this is weirdly like a celebrity coming to his team, now that he’s nineteen and a little less quiet and still pretty closeted, okay, but not ashamed, he’s _not_. 

He doesn’t know what he wants Derek to say, because Derek being disgusted would wreck him, but Derek being all for it would kind of do the same, but Derek just says, “Cool,” and then reads the news to Andy like Andy hasn’t been sitting there two feet away from him for the past hour, waiting for him to find out. 

“Cool,” Andy echoes, and that’s just about all that’s said about it until they’re back at training camp and Riley gets tested on Derek’s other wing. He’s perfect there, the three of them hit this sort of synchronicity that’s a little weird, because they don’t even know this guy, but Andy can anticipate what he’s going to do before he does it. Andy and Derek flew through linemates last season, no one really working on right wing, but he fits perfectly. After practice, they all get slaps on the shoulder and Derek skates up behind them, gets an arm around Andy’s shoulder and an arm around Riley’s, which is pretty impressive, considering they’re both taller than he is.

“You are beautiful,” Derek declares to Riley. “Are you sure you’re taken?”

“Pretty sure,” Riley says, grinning, and Derek sighs theatrically while Andy drops his head, because Derek flirts with everyone he likes, and it’s about time Andy stops thinking it’s something Derek only does with him. 

Derek’s in a great mood, loudly showing off his wingers like Andy and Riley are his babies, and most of the guys take it in good humour, though Leon shittalks him until there’s an impromptu wrestling match in the middle of the room. At least they took their skates off first.

“You were good out there,” Andy says, kind of shyly. He’s not exactly star struck by hockey players, they’re just doing their jobs, same as him, but Andy had followed the coming out almost obsessively, and Riley and Lapointe had been celebrities to him, a complete fantasy, two young attractive hockey players in _love_. 

“Thanks,” Riley says, nudging his shoulder. “You too.”

Andy wishes he’d fallen for someone a little more like Dan Riley, all nice and normal, and _gay_. Also not currently in a headlock on the dressing room floor. That’s a big one.

“Bowie,” Derek chokes out, and Andy sighs and goes to save him.

*

Training camp wasn’t just a fluke: Dan’s great on the wing and there’s no sense messing with the chemistry the three of them have, the second they’re on the ice, they’re golden. Dan tends to take the wing on outings as well, Derek insisting that he needs to show him around the city, and dragging Andy along. Andy wonders if Derek’s using Dan as a buffer so he doesn’t have to be on his guard when him and Andy drink together. If so, it works, and Andy can’t complain because he likes Dan, Dan’s as fun as Derek but less of a douche about it (Derek fakes heartbroken when Andy says that out loud), and whatever weirdness might have happened the first time Derek and Andy went drinking together again is nullified because Dan works as a buffer, and also disappears for twenty minutes to take a call and comes back all goofy smiles, so the two of them spend the rest of the night teasing him about it, while Dan doesn’t even bother to defend himself.

The closest they get to acknowledging it in that first couple months is when the team’s out in Toronto, and someone brought up someone’s virginity, Andy doesn’t even know how it came up, some of the guys are too drunk for their own good, and Derek looks at Andy from across the table, a smirk all ready, before the colour drains from his face. Andy can _see_ it drain from his face.

So Andy guesses his hope that Derek doesn’t remember anything was kind of naive. When Leon gets Derek’s attention, Andy bolts, goes straight back to the hotel. He realises, belatedly, that his coat is still on the back of his chair at the bar, and his room key’s in there, so he texts Olsen to ask him to bring it back because he doesn’t think he can make himself go back there, and sits outside his door because he doesn’t want to deal with reception either. Or anything. 

After ten minutes he hears footsteps, and hunches more into himself, tries to make himself small, which probably doesn’t work. The footsteps stop, and Andy glares down at his knees.

“Bowman?” Dan says. He’d gone to see his family instead of out with the guys, and Andy guesses parents have earlier bedtimes than hockey players. 

Andy looks up. “I’m locked out,” he mumbles. “Olsen’s going to bring me my key.”

“Okay,” Dan says. “Want to come hang in my room?”

“No thank you,” Andy says to his knees.

Dan doesn’t move. “Andy?” he says. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Andy mumbles.

“My knees are going to hate me,” Dan says, and Andy has no idea what that means until Dan’s kneeling on the hotel carpet in front of him. 

“This probably looks weird,” Andy says.

“If you don’t want it to look weird you could come to my room,” Dan suggests, sounding hopeful.

Andy picks at a loose thread on his pants.

“What’d Carruthers do?” Dan says. 

“Nothing,” Andy mutters.

“He probably didn’t mean it,” Dan says.

Andy presses his lips together. That’s exactly the point.

“Okay,” Dan says, “good talk.” He levers himself up with a groan. If he complains about his knees tomorrow Andy isn’t accepting responsibility.

“Dan?” Andy asks, hesitant.

“Yeah?” Dan asks.

“How’d you and the diver get together?” 

Dan sighs, but if he didn’t want his entire team to refer to Lapointe as ‘the diver’, maybe he shouldn’t have complained for three days straight after it happened. 

“I fucked up and he called me on it,” Dan says.

“Romantic,” Andy says. And unhelpful.

“I think it worked out okay,” Dan says. “Sure you don’t want to hang out in my room until Olsen gets back?”

“Sure,” Andy says, and tucks his knees tighter to himself when Dan goes back to his own room.

Olsen’s back twenty minutes later, throws Andy’s jacket on his head, and when Andy claws his way out from under it, he’s looking down at him with that Olsen look that Andy dreads.

“Should we talk?” Olsen asks.

“No thank you,” Andy says meekly, and Olsen eyeballs him for a little bit before he goes away, leaves Andy alone so that he can go into his room and sulk in bed with the TV on low.

Pretending it didn’t happen was supposed to make it go away, but now Andy feels worse than ever, wonders if Derek is thinking about it when he pats him on the head or wraps an arm around his shoulders or crashes into him on the ice, the way Andy does when Derek’s patting him on the head or wrapping an arm around his shoulders or crashing into him on the ice.

He knows what Dan would say, or Olsen, not like he’d ever tell either of them. They’d tell him to talk about it like a grown-up, but Andy’s nineteen and Derek’s probably permanently going to be a kid, so he doesn’t think that advice applies, when both of them seem to do best with pretending it didn’t happen. Except that’s not working anymore, which isn’t _fair_.

*

The next day Derek’s so normal that Andy almost thinks he imagined the whole thing, but he knows he didn’t. Derek throws a water bottle at Hanson and then spends half of practice trying to skate away from him, which is easy because Hanson is huge and therefore slow and tires easier, but stupid because Hanson is _huge_. While everyone’s stopped what they’re doing to marvel at how stupid Derek is and then place bets on how long it’ll take Hanson to catch him and how fucked Derek is when he does, Dan nudges Andy with his elbow.

“You good?” he asks.

“Fine,” Andy says. “Honest.” He thinks for a second, as Hanson finally catches Derek by the back of his jersey. “Do you think we could go out soon?” 

“Sure,” Dan says, distracted, “Should we help him?”

“No,” Andy says. “He asked for it. Like. Somewhere I could get laid?” 

It’s about time he did something about it, something that doesn’t involve his straight teammate. 

Dan looks over at him. “You asking me to be your wingman? Is Carruthers going to get mad at me if I say yes?”

“He can’t do it,” Andy mumbles. “He’s not--”

“Handsome? Charming?” Dan asks, and Andy laughs. “Gay?”

Andy bites down hard on his lip, looks around.

“No one’s listening, Andy,” Dan says.

“Is it obvious?” Andy asks, finally.

“Not really,” Dan says. “I can teach you the secret handshake, though.”

Andy elbows him, looks away. Hanson’s got Derek pinned under him on the ice, but Derek hasn’t started yelling for Andy’s help yet, and he’s laughing so hard he’s choking himself, so Andy guesses he’s fine.

“Faceoffs?” Dan suggests, because it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen at all, Andy thinks Coach went off for a smoke. He keeps telling them they’re going to give him a heart-attack before he can die from it anyway, and no one has the balls to argue with him except Olsen, who keeps handing him pamphlets on quitting smoking whenever he feels passive-aggressive.

They need to practice anyway, Derek has a bad habit of cheating in the circle, and gets caught at it way too often. Andy’s not terrible at faceoffs, but Dan kind of is, so they’re trying to work on it when they have time. 

“How are my favourite boys?” Derek says, five minutes later. He hasn’t caught his breath and his helmet’s on crooked, but he looks mostly intact. Andy rolls his eyes, but skates out of the circle and lets Derek step in for him because he’s a better choice to practice against, and this way they can actually get a clean puck drop. 

After practice, Andy hangs around for a minute, and snags Dan by the jersey when he’s about to head off the ice. “Saturday?” he asks hopefully. 

“Sure,” Dan says. 

“What’s Saturday?” Derek yells, still in the tunnel, and Andy flinches and lets go of Dan’s jersey.

“We’re going out without you,” Dan says easily, hip checking Derek out of his way. “Date night.”

“I’m telling the diver you’ve been getting around,” Derek calls after him, and Dan gives him the finger without looking back.

“What’s Saturday?” Derek asks, at normal volume, when Andy steps off the ice.

“It’s nothing,” Andy says, and pretends he doesn’t see the hurt look on Derek’s face.

It’s for the best.


End file.
